NBL Fantasy | Go look for your Next Star
This weekly column is produced by Dean Zardo and Steve Chalmers.
It is at this point we reach the midway point of your 2019/20 NBL Fantasy journey. Well, that is of course if you make your chosen league's grand finale!
Key injuries have been the biggest theme of the season thus far, with no signs of this slowing down anytime soon - so it's important to stay on top of the injury chart and where your team's planning is heading.
We start to enter the logjam of fixtures over the Christmas break with the next three weeks providing us with the most games in that span this season (23). How many players will you have playing in the majority of games? This is where you will make your big move up the leaderboard.
Next Star? Next.
Season 19/20 has four NBL Next Star participants with three of them having seen major court time. LaMelo Ball is quite obviously the pick of the bunch, however both he and New Zealand's RJ Hampton missed games this past week. Ball is set for a longer stint on the sidelines, while both Louzada and Armstrong probably aren't being lined up as major Fantasy inclusions over the coming weeks.
Creek factor
Don't get left behind. We'll leave this one short and sweet.
We've been telling you all year that the South East Melbourne Phoenix's time to shine began in Round 11. Three straight doubles and five doubles in seven weeks means that you'd want to have (arguably) the best player in the competition in your Fantasy squads.
https://twitter.com/cp_chalmers/status/1204238862148497408
The Stars
Nick Kay (Perth Wildcats)
Talk about the bounce back! Kay put up 152 for the round (two games) and was back to his very best for the 'Cats and it was no surprise to therefore see them secure two impressive victories. Double double on the double puts Kay right back into the discussions when working out short-term options.
The Value
Ben Madgen (South East Melbourne Phoenix)
Suddenly 'Madge' has erupted after two superb scores over the past two weeks! Registering 69 fpoints this past week on a single was the icing on the cake for the fortnight after notching 57 just a week prior. He's found the right sort of form heading into the friendly schedule SEM have - the question is can he keep it up?
Pressure Cooker
Nathan Sobey (Brisbane Bullets)
Well McVeigh duly saluted in this column with a -6 this past week, but what happened to Nathan Sobey this week? After a sub-par game against the Hawks, many would have expected a strong, bounce back performance against a struggling Breakers outfit. It was quite the opposite as the Bullets struggled themselves as a team, highlighted by Sobey's seven-point effort and 13 fpoints.
Injury List
Illawarra Aaron BrooksAchilles - SeasonSam FrolingAnkle - TestLaMelo BallFoot - 4 weeksMelbourneAlex PledgerAnkle - 4 to 5 weeksTohi Smith-MilnerConcussion - ProbableNew ZealandGlen Rice Jr.Contract TerminatedRJ HamptonHip - ProbablePerthWani Swaka Lo Buluk Ankle - 3 to 4 weeksSydneyXavier CooksKnee - IndefiniteCraig MollerAnkle - Test
The Tweets
We see you! Anything that catches our eye, we'll attempt to share with all of our readers.
https://twitter.com/MickRandallHS/status/1203950965805551616
https://twitter.com/huw_beynon/status/1203926768563810304
https://twitter.com/SebGreenway/status/1203956314579161089
https://twitter.com/nicktan77/status/1203628309780631558
https://twitter.com/run2dmax/status/1203120296212877312
The Summary
So, you've come here for a reason haven't you? Who do you bring in for the next round? Let's make it simple, below are a few names (at different levels) who you can target:
Doubles in Round 11: ADL, CNS, MELB, PER, SEM
PG: John Roberson (South East Melbourne) $1.44m
PG: Jerome Randle (Adelaide) $1.28m
SG/SF: Mitch Creek (South East Melbourne) $1.91m
SG/SF: Anthony Drmic (Adelaide) $1.31m
PF: Daniel Johnson (Adelaide) $1.7m
PF: Eric Griffin (Adelaide) $1.25m
PF/C: Tai Wesley (South East Melbourne) $1.44m
For those you should be keen to oppose
Time to ship some Brisbane guys if you have any, they have two straight singles. Obviously LaMelo Ball is done for all sides which is a real shame because the Hawks come into a really nice schedule after this week is done and dusted - imagine watching eight straight games of LaMelo in four weeks!! Keep your eyes peeled on any injury news doing the rounds - teams are getting much better at announcing these which is a really great sign for the league!
Questions
Over the course of the week, we'll do our best to answer a number of questions on here each week. Throw up your question using #NBLFantasy or by tweeting one of us @cp_chalmers and @dean_zardo.
https://twitter.com/thcairns/status/1204212652563550208
Obviously not a question - but too good to leave out. This would be the best tweet for the year!!